… According to a USA Today study, the average pay for major college football coaches has risen 28% over the last two years, to $1.36 million. In 2007, 12 coaches made at least $2 million. Today, that number has more than doubled, to 25. According to the USA Today study, Leach made at least $2.7 million this year, Mangino $2.3 million and Leavitt $1.6 million…

UD understands. You’re being paid more than anyone else on campus — often anyone else in the state — to win games. The pressure’s incredible. When the reputation of the university rests on your shoulders, you might have to concuss a few players to get the school where it wants to be.

Don’t kid yourself about “increasing sadism,” UD: most 50 to 60 somethings who played football, even at a grade school and high school level, probably have stories that make these current coaches seem wimpy.

I wonder to what extent this is a generational issue. The key step toward sending coaches out of control was the NCAA decision, 35 years ago, to make athletic scholarships discretionary (for the coach, effectively); earlier they had been a four-year commitment to the player. In recent years we have reached the point where few coaches go back to those days, even as players.

The discretionary scholarship and freshman eligibility were disastrous moves in terms of the integrity of college sports. Both “reforms” were justified as money savers, and neither will be reversed because that would increase costs.

This is another example of why the cost issue and the integrity issue, though they certainly interact, are not the same thing at all.